The Weekly Standard reserves the right to use your email for internal use only. Occasionally,
we may send you special offers or communications from carefully selected advertisers we believe may be of benefit to our subscribers.
Click the box to be included in these third party offers. We respect your privacy and will never rent or sell your email.

Please include me in third party offers.

Former network television host Tom Brokaw will be appearing on the Chinese Communist channel later tonight, according to a press release from China Central Television. The Communist channel bears the ironic acronym CCTV, which in other contexts usually stands for “closed-circuit television.”

“CCTV America’s talk and debate public affairs show The Heat announces Mike Walter will talk with iconic journalist, television news anchor and author Tom Brokaw,” the press release reads. “Mr. Brokaw shares his insights on the major changes in China over the past four decades, the challenges that lie ahead for the country and how the United States should deal with China’s role as an emerging global power.”

Brokaw, a once trusted newsman, will without a doubt lend legitimacy to the Chinese television network’s budding presence in America. Brokaw is currently a special correspondent to NBC News, having previously anchored NBC Nightly News, the Today Show, and Meet the Press.

CCTV opened its Washington, D.C. based studio only last month, according to its website. “The move represents the latest move by China Central Television to project China and more closely connect Asia and America,” its website states. “The U-S production center is reaching out to American viewers and a global audience seeking diversity and alternative news coverage.”

The new network plays up Brokaw’s China credentials. “Mr. Brokaw covered China and U.S.-China relations for more than four decades, beginning with President Ford’s trip to China in 1975. He produced a two-hour prime-time ‘NBC Special Event’ documentary called Journey into the Heart of China in 1983. This television special gave ordinary Americans their first glimpse into the daily lives and customs of a changing China as the country emerged from the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution and set out on a path of modernization and transformation. Over 18 months, the special program recorded more than 240 hours of film in places that had never before been open to outsiders,” the press release states.